Shaun White reveals new side in 'Friends with Benefits'

Jul. 18, 2011 08:40 AMUSA TODAY

Shaun White has turned into a dude with a 'tude.

The snowboard and skateboarding champion reveals an entirely new side of himself with a sizzling cameo in "Friends With Benefits," which opens Friday. Ever-lovable White turns on a serious dark side as the in-your-face nemesis to a very surprised Justin Timberlake.

He says he was surprised to get the call from producer/director Will Gluck, who proposed the idea for White's first movie role.

It works because the notion of White snapping goes against his well-known personality, Gluck says.

"Shaun's normally this big-smiling teddy bear in commercials, and he is one in real life," Gluck says. "But he was game for everything. We got lucky."

White found that practicing his lines on his buddies wasn't working ("I couldn't take them seriously as Timberlake"), so he hired an acting coach who pulled the rookie onto a New York street to perfect the needed blowup.

"There I am on this street corner shouting these threats. And (my coach) is coming right back at me like he's just as mad," White says. "People are looking over like, 'Is that Shaun White?'"

But "it worked," White says. "It really brought me out of my shell."

Confronting the real Timberlake was similarly surreal, especially in one scene when the two square off in a loud bar.

"They cut the music for sound quality and I'm an inch from Justin Timberlake, screaming at his face," White says. "I am shouting these threats at him, and it's dead silence with people pretend-dancing to no music. I thought, 'This is getting awkward.'"

White insists he holds no true Timberlake anger. ("Well, only from his 'N Sync days," he jokes. "Just kidding. He did redeem himself.") And he expresses regret for going off on this "super-nice guy."